Process of analyzing pig-iron



UNITED STAT-Es PATEIYLOEFICE- SAMUELA. FORD, or-rrrrsnune, PENNSYLVANIA.

PRocEssoF ANALYZINGPIGV- IRON .FROM "BLAST-FURNACES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 281,044, dated July 10,1883.

7 Application filed Januaryl'l, 188 3. (No specimens.)

new and useful Improvements in Processes 0fv Analyzing Pig-Iron fromBlast-Furnaces; and I do hereby declare thatthe following is a full,

' clear,and exact description of the invention,

analysis cannot be had for several hours.

which will enable others skilled in the art to which it appertains tomake and use the same.

In the manufacture of steel, whether Bessemer or openhearth, by thedirect process, wherein the molten metal is taken directly from theblast-furnace to the converter or furnace, it is practically out of thequestion to obtain a running analysis of the charge in time to be ofservice. If the usual f sample be cast and allowed to cool in theordinary way, the If the sample-piece he suddenly cooled in water, itchills, and cannot bereadily broken up or drilled for the test.Meanwhile the ladle of molten metal drawn from theblast-furnace cannotbe held for' such a length of time; hence the character of the contentsof the ladle must be to a certain extent guessed at, es-

pecially with reference to the contained sili-.

con.

My object is to make an immediate test practicable without delaying thetransfer of the metal from the blast-furnace.

The invention consists, briefly, in taking a small quantity of themolten iron, and by pouring it into water granulating it, in whichcondition it is quite brittle, and then crushing and analyzing thegranules. More fully, my invention is as follows: Usually the metal istransferred in a ladle set on trucks, and as the converting-works aregenerally some distance from the blast-furnace, it generally takes fromtwenty minutes to a half hour from the first tapping of theblast-furnace till the ladle is brought to the converter. As soon as themetal begins to run from the furnace, I catch or dip up a small quantityof it and let it drop sev eral feet into Water, preferably clean Waterin a clean vessel. As soon as it strikes the water, the metal dividesinto small globules or pellets, which chill at once. These can be takenat once to the laboratory, and, being extremely brittle, they'can bevery readily crushed in a steel mortar, and thus reduced to thecondition required for analysis. As the analysis, which is at this stagedesired, requires but a few minutes to determine, the result is that Ican have the report on the contents of the ladle ready by thetime thelatter has arrived at the converting-works. There is therefore no delaycaused in the proper carrying out of the direct process, and at the sametime, the precise character of the metal being analytically determined,the reagents of conversion may be accurately regulated and the standardproduct maintained-a result which is unattainable in the presentpractice of making samples and boring them after slow cooling.

I claim as my invention The method of analyzing the runs of ablastfurnace, consisting in first granulating some of the molten metalby pouring into water and then crushing and analyzing the said granules,substantially as described.

In testimony that I claim the foregoing as my own I have hereto affixedmy signature in presence of two Witnesses.

SAMUEL A. FORD.

\Vitnesses XVM. I. Mann, '1. J. McTiei-in.

